Wednesday, January 18, 2012

My Stance On SOPA/PIPA

I don't know why everyone is making a big deal now about these bills. We should have all started caring months ago when it was announced that these ideas. That is one of the most unfortunate things about a majority of American society we don't care about liberty until it is taken away.
From a citizen point of view I am outraged that our government wants to stick their greasy paws into my home and limit what I can view. From a business point of view I understand the need to protect ideas and properties from people stealing and illegally distributing them, thus taking money out of my pockets. From a moral point of view I cannot grasp why people all of a sudden decided stealing was not a sin just because it can be done from the privacy of a bedroom.

I love my country along with most of the people that inhabit it, and everything I say can be considered hypocritical, for I am guilty of such acts. In order to avoid having myself arrested I will never admit to the details, but everyone has been guilty of piracy at one point or another. This is a serious issue, it should never be this easy to commit a crime and a sin. That being said we arise at a very serious issue that SOPA and PIPA both have, which is the freedom to abuse power. We are ideally allowing them to censor what they do not want us to view. China has a similar law, now I am not saying America is a bunch of Communist, though I am sure in this day and age the argument has some footholds.

The concern here is not stopping illegal activities, it is having the voice of America's free people snuffed out. With the recent economy shift and the death of middle class America, many are left without a voice or a choice. The internet offers an outlet in many ways for people to get their cries out. If SOPA and PIPA were not so vague I am sure they would have no problem getting passed, however in their current state they are just a dagger in the back of the American people.

Now as human beings I feel we should take our personal actions into account and at least acknowledge what we are doing is wrong. It should not be a surprise to anyone that the "Moral Compass" of America is seriously screwed up. There are so many horrifying things happening every single day and the media worries more about people's shoes rather than troops getting blown up fighting a war started for unknown reasons. We have television shows like Jersey Shore and Teen Mom telling our kids if you become an alcoholic and get pregnant you'll be on TV. So before we start pointing the corrupt finger at our government maybe we should all look in the mirror and judge ourselves on a deeper level.

I've heard some say that piracy is what helped cause the economic crash. After I squelch my laughter it begins to sink in that if one person thinks this then there are others. So to clarify, stop being so ridiculous. Yes some companies took a major hit mainly the music industry, but the economy can never truly be affected by one aspect of society. If anything the internet helped America flourish. We have websites like Ebay, Amazon, Itunes, etc... to help keep fair marketing in check that way people are not being monopolized. To help circulate media we have Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook. Those 3 sites alone have helped so many politicians especially more recently Ron Paul, who was practically muffled on the American media channels. It also introduced the world to all sorts of music that would probably not even exist if not for modern media devices and being to so easily share ideas.

I suppose the point I am trying to arrive at is simple... "Yes, we need to fix the skewed point of view in society, piracy is illegal and is far to easy achieve. However that does not mean giving away our rights to freely express ourselves on the internet. As a whole we need to get the point across that stealing is wrong whether it be physical or digital". SOPA and PIPA are not what this country or the internet needs, but the idea that which created them needs to be further embraced by America as a whole.

THESE IDEAS ARE SOLELY MINE ALONE AND NOT EXPRESSED AS A WHOLE REPRESENTATION OF THREECHEERSFORMEDIA.COM